The present invention relates to a book that is useful as a children""s book. More particularly, the present invention is related to a book having a plurality of pages, chapters, parts, rhymes or stories. Most particularly, the present invention is related to a book that has a dial that can be rotated, or other selector device, to enable the user to select and access a given page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within the book and to prevent the user from inadvertently accessing unselected portions of the book.
A variety of books are currently on the market that are constructed for use by children, and contain several pages, chapters, parts, rhymes or stories. However, in these books, opening to one of the portions requires cumbersome page flipping or looking in a table of contents for a page number. Children just learning to read can be intimidated by numerous pages. These drawbacks can prove quite difficult for a child just learning to read. Thus, it would represent advancement in the art of providing books for use by children if a book was provided that had a means for allowing the user to directly select and access a given page, chapter, part, rhyme, or story within the book. Further, it would represent an advancement in the art if a book was provided that had a means for preventing a user from inadvertently accessing unselected portions of the book and/or losing his or her place in the book.
The prior art contains examples of books including moving parts, however, none of these books enable direct selection of a portion of the book. Thorsheim et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,576, discloses an educational book that includes elements that allow for interaction between graphic information on a page, and graphic information contained on a central rotatable element attached to the back cover. Thorsheim ""576, however, does not teach a book with a selector device that allows a user to select and access a given page, chapter, part, rhyme, or story within the book.
Wada, U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,054, discloses a picture book having a telephone dial structure attached on the inside surface of the back cover of the book. The front cover and all of the pages between the front and back covers have cutouts in the shape of the telephone dial structure. Thus, the structure always appears in any open position of the book. Wada ""054, however, does not suggest the use of a selector device that allows a user to select and access a given page, chapter, part, rhyme, or story within the book.
Chang, U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,879, teaches a book for children having a plurality of electronic teaching units that can be selected by the user. The book consists of question pages and an answer page unit. The invention provides a self-teaching children""s book with an electronic device that indicates whether the answer choice of a user is correct. Chang ""879, however, does not teach the use of a selector device that allows a user to select and access a given page, chapter, part, section, rhyme, or story within the book.
Hunt, U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,237, discloses a children""s book that includes at least one page provided with a rotatable movable page portion. The movable portion of the page is rotatable between the position in which the page is normally configured and an extended position in which a portion of the inner picture is exposed. The rotatable movable page portion, however, is not designed to function as a selector device.
Ozrovitz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,507, describes an instructional children""s storybook that has a page equipped with a puzzle on its reverse side. The puzzle has a plurality of interlocking puzzle pieces. The object of the invention being a children""s story book that develops hand and eye coordination. Clements, U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,743, discloses a flip over picture book. The pictures of the book are disposed such that the person listening to the story sees the first sides of the pages and their respective pictures while the storyteller sees the second side (or flip) sides of the pages that contain text relating to their respective first sides viewed by the listener. Although the inventions of Ozrovitz and Clements may allow a user to access information within the book from a page elsewhere in the book, the access is limited to that contained on the back of the page in use. Neither Ozrovitz ""507, nor Clements ""743 teach a book with a selector device.
Accordingly, although there are books that contain movable parts for enhancing the reader""s enjoyment of a book, none of the prior art books provide for directly selecting and accessing a portion of the book. Thus, it would represent an advancement in the art of providing books for children if a book was provided that has a dial that can be rotated, or other selector device, to enable the user to select and access a given page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within the book. Further, the invention would provide children with a useful, easy and/or entertaining way to select and access a given page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within a book. In addition, the present invention would provide a book that allows a user to easily and directly access his or her favorite page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within the book. Further, the invention would provide a book that prevents a user from inadvertently accessing unselected portions of the book and/or losing his or her selected place in the book.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a book that has more than one page, chapter, part, rhyme or story.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a book that contains a plurality of pages, chapters, parts, rhymes or stories.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a book that allows access to at least one given page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within the book.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a book that allows access to at least one given page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within the book by using a selector device that a user will find useful, easy and/or entertaining to use.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a book that allows a user to easily access his or her favorite page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within the book.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a book that prevents a user from inadvertently accessing unselected portions of the book and/or losing his or her selected place in the book.
Accordingly, these objects and others are achieved by the book of the present invention which comprises a front cover; a back cover; a plurality of pages between the front and back covers; a means for binding the front cover, back cover and the pages along at least one side thereof; wherein the plurality of pages are divisible into at least two portions by providing each page of the respective portions with a portion-defining characteristic; and a selector device attached to the book comprising a portion-selector engager, and an index of the portions, whereby movement of the portion-selector engager to an item listed on the index corresponding to a page, chapter, part, rhyme or story within the book provides for the engagement of the portion selector engager with the portion-defining characteristic of the corresponding portion of the book. Preferably, the selector device further comprises a portion de-selector engager whereby movement of the mechanical selector to an item listed on the index provides for the engagement of the portion de-selector engager with the portion-defining characteristic corresponding to the portion subsequent to the selected portion thereby enabling the book to be opened directly to the selected portion of the book and preventing access to the subsequent portions of the book which were not selected.
In a preferred embodiment, the selector device is mechanical and the portion-selector engager comprises a shaft, a rotable dial on one end of the shaft and a flange at the other end of the shaft, whereby rotating the dial to select a given page, chapter, part, rhyme or story from an index or listing of the pages, chapters, parts, rhymes or stories within the book aligns a flange on the portion-selector engager with holes on the pages of the book proceeding the selected page, chapter, section, rhyme or story, so as to enable the user to directly open the book to the selected page or the first page of the selected page, chapter, part, rhyme or story. In another preferred embodiment, the mechanical selector also comprises a portion de-selector engager whereby rotating the dial also aligns a second flange connected to the portion de-selector engager with holes on the pages of the book subsequent to the selected page, chapter, section, rhyme or story, so as to prevent the user from accessing the portions of the book subsequent to the selected page, chapter, section, rhyme or story.